Poor planning is holding up new housing and adding to costs for home buyers in Australia, the Property Council of Australia's 2015 planning assessment has found.

While some states performed better than others since the last survey in 2012, not one state has met all 10 national principles for best practice development assessment set by the former Development Assessment Forum in 2005.

"While the scores reveal some gradual improvements against the planning principles, the results are still decidedly average across all Australian jurisdictions, stifling new housing, increasing costs and impacting affordability.

Mr Morrison said antiquated development assessment processes drive up the price of housing and commercial projects a condition that is now prevalent in major cities such as Sydney and Melbourne.

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Corelogic RP Data latest statistics show Sydney home values have increased 15 per cent in the last year and in Melbourne, 9 per cent.

"The only really effective way to make housing more affordable is to build more homes, build them faster and at lower cost," Mr Morrison said.

Northern Territory and Western Australia are leading the charge on planning reform scoring 7.7 and 7.5 out of 10 for performance against principles, which include effective consultation with the community and relevant experts, having a centralised single body for assessing applications and fast tracked applications which comply with rules.

Tas and NSW lag

NSW is falling behind at 5.9.

The only state that is worse than NSW is Tasmania, which does not have a single housing code and has a lack of strategic policy direction and a litigious planning system.

Developers in NSW have lamented the antiquated development approval environment in the state.